The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1887-01-06
NEW SERIES. xxu.-NO.. 80.

| millions OF dollars annually from failurs
to pen our stock ut night. There is ne
excuse for any Geor gian staying poor ol
starving his land.
"With his cotton seed and stable ma
nure saved, and composted with decayed
leaves, tne straw, etc., any farmer can
become rich if he wants to and double
the value of his land in three years."
How much compost should be used to
the acre p
+" 1t is hard to use too much. In France
the average is 10000 pounds to the acre.
A Georgia farmer will hardly average 1Oo
pounds to the acre. will average TO-.
600 pounds next year. Nothing pays 90
WE'LL"
How do you scatter so much to the
acre p
"Simplest thing in the world. start
q two-horse wagon through the field, !
put some negroes with half-bushel baskets
without handles under their arms, in the
track, OF each weser riay off tho oar..
post out OF the baskets as they walk
along and have their baskets filled from
the wagon. / have changed the position
of my cotton rows, some inches to the
right each year, so that the compost will
be thrown in new strips every year. In
this way have fertilized my whole field
instead of enriching the same row year
after year. shall hereafter broadcast it !"
" Your whole secret then is cheap and
intelligent manure and plenty ofit?"
Yes, have shown you the money
profit in manure. have shown you the
added value it gives to the land. There
are many other advantages. You make
your crop quicker and with less danger.
| made last year-mark this-forty-seven
bales on sixty-five acres, in three months
and five days. 1t was planted June 5th,
and the caterpillar finished it on Septem.
Der 10th. showed the Agricultural So
ciety stalk FIVE feet high with 1873 bolls
by actual count on it. The seed from
which this plant grew was planted just
ffty-nine days before. Cotton planted
this way can be picked with half the cost
and time of ordinary cotton. On my cot
ton land this year raised 100 bushels of
oats to the acre, and after cleaning off the
stubble, planted the cotton, one stalk of
which / showed the Convention"
"Of course in your five years of study
you have discovered other improvements
in cotton planting ?"
"Certainly. One is not to drop the
cotton-seed in continuous row, but SIM
ply to put few seed in the hill where
you want to plant. BY strewing the
seed in sprinkled row there is great
waste. Cotton seed is like an egg.
When the chick is born there is nothing
but the shell left. When the seed has
sprouted there is nothing but the shell
left. The fertilizing power of this seed
is lost. Worse than this, it draws from
the soil for the elements that make it
grow. 1t is left to deplete the soil in this
way for two weeks, at least, and is then
chopped down, leaving only one out of
twenty plants to grow to fruitage. Ny
plan is to plant four or five seed in a hill
the hills to stand in four-feet squares.
Of these, would let two plants in the
hill grow to perfection. 1t takes from
two to four bushels of seed to plant an
acre in the old way. BY my plan peck
to the acre is enough, and the soil is not
drawn to support a multitude of surplus
plants for two or three weeks.'
:" Is planting in four-foot squares better
than the old way?
Yes. Cotton is sun-plant, and
needs room for its roots. When cramped
to twelve or fifteen inches it can not at
tain its perfect growth. My aim is to put
the plants to togethe in four-foot
squares, and average seventy.fve to one
hundred and fifty bolls to the plant. This
will give you pound of cotton seed to
the plant, or three bales to the acre."
Nruun rrrc Corr,,o~x
"What abo 1T hoeing y0lr cotton ?"
81 never touch it with hoe. The
growth of cotton comes from the spread
ing hlaments that reach out from the root
and feed it. If these are destroyed the
growth stops until they are restored. L
am satisfied that three hoeings lost me
eighteen days of growth, or six days each.
run shallow plow along the cotton
rows, and never go deep enough to cnt
the roots. But there are more details in
which men may differ. The main thing
is the intensive system of manuring, and
outstanding all the droppings and vast
age of farm for compost. I can take
any hundred acres of land in Georgia,
and at nominal cost can bring its pro-
duction from sixth of a bale to three
bales an acre in five years. ANY man can
do it."
"My tenants are adopting the intensive
plan, and are very much encouraged.
Some few ueighbors are using my form
ula. have sent out, I suppose, five
hundred formulas for composing. The
speech made before the Agricultural
Associatian created more excitement than
anything for years. The members did
not relish my statement, saw plainly.
They sent Mr.. E. G. Grier, the secretary,
to Milledgeville to see my crops and veri-
fy my Statements. He is to-day the most
enthusiastic man in Georgia over the sys-
tenn am working on"
"You understand" said Mr.. Furman
in conclusion, "that have no possible
interest in this matter outside Of nv crops.
! have no recipe to sell, no phosphates, no
fancy seed, no land. What I have done
has been with common seed on Door land.
with cheap manure, and any man, without
price or purchase, can do what have
done. l am satisfied to make my. money
out of the ground, and want none from
my fellow farmers.''
81 am anxious" he added, "to see my
plan adopted. If it is done, we will have
the best State in the world. Why, look at
France; her recuperative power is the
wonder of the world, and what is it
based ona Simply that she can raise two
crops-one of these lentil crop-in one
season. But, in Middle Georgia, can
raise three crops per season on . piece of